Employee Onboarding

Changing jobs and moving to a new company are always stressful for an employee due to the inevitable transformation of the experience and practices developed at the previous place of work.

THE ONBOARDING PROCESS BEGINS AT THE STAGE OF CANDIDATES SELECTION

The onboarding of an employee at the company begins even before the signing of an employment contract. At the initial stage of communication, the recruiting manager shall not only schedule an interview making sure that all the interested parties can take part in the meeting and the interview will not have to be rescheduled due to the busyness of the future supervisor, but also shall provide the potential candidate with comprehensive information about the vacancy, the company and working conditions.

Then, candidates who have received an official invitation to work have a conversation with an HR specialist. In some companies, the recruitment and employment procedures may be handled by the same specialist, but we believe that it is better to assign registration processes to dedicated experts in order to avoid possible errors or inaccuracies in the procedure. After the candidate accepts our invitation, HR specialists send a letter to him/her with a detailed list of documents to be submitted for the registration, and with the timing for their submission.

The specialists also send a link to the open section of the corporate portal which contains local regulations of the company to be familiarised with before hiring, as well as templates of documents to be filled out. In order to ensure information security, documents are divided into download- and copy-protected and available for filling out.

In addition, the employee receives the information with the schedule for the first working day: what procedures to be completed and how long they will take. For example, due to the fact that a large number of staff employees work remotely or combine office and remote work, IT professionals will need time to connect all systems and arrange access to the terminal server.

MANAGER’S CONTROL ON THE SIDE OF THE EMPLOYEE

After all accounts have been created, a welcome email is automatically sent to the employee inviting them to review the onboarding plan. This plan is generated in our management information system and includes a list of 34 steps or events to take place during the probation period within the planned timeframe. They include providing an employee with a corporate SIM card and a mobile device, installing the necessary software, providing access to databases needed to perform work tasks, giving instructions on opening and closing the office, and so on. This way the employee understands what he/she needs to get from the company, and can independently control the processes by contacting the supervisor if any of these points have not been fulfilled.

PROGRESS MAP WILL HELP TO TRACK THE EMPLOYEES’ SUCCESS

In addition to the list of tasks, the supervisor must schedule three meetings with the employee to assess progress in the position and fitness for the assigned work. We recommend that supervisors hold regular meetings in four and seven to eight weeks after starting work at the company, as well as two weeks before the end of the probation period, and after the conversation specify their assessment in the Progress Map: whether the employee has started to perform the assigned tasks, whether the work is performed at the required level, or above or below expectations. At the meeting, not only the employee, but also the supervisor can get feedback, find out what interferes with the performance of the tasks, what additional information and tools the employee needs.

WORKSHOPS AND TRAINING PROMOTE FASTER INTEGRATION INTO THE WORK PROCESSES

We deliberately recruit candidates who do not always meet our requirements for the level of proficiency in software and soft skills to the full extent; therefore, we solve this issue at the corporate level. In addition to the Welcome seminar, new employees are currently provided with:

• 8 hours of learning to work in Excel;
• 2.5 hours of learning to use the corporate portal;
• 3 hours for training on “correct” communications with colleagues and clients.

HR SERVICE TRACKS THE “MOOD” OF THE NEW EMPLOYEE

The first meeting shall be scheduled two weeks after starting work at the company; before it, the employee receives a link to an online survey with simple questions that will not necessarily be asked at the meeting with the supervisor. For example:

1. Have you got all necessary access? How many working days has it taken?
2. Have you received the stationery you need for work?
3. Do you have a mentor or is the mentoring function performed by your supervisor? Were there any situations when you did not know who to turn to for assistance or information? Could you describe the situations?
4. Do you need additional training on the use of software and applications? (the next question is which ones)
5. Have you already taken part in the Welcome seminar? (then a request to evaluate the event according to certain criteria to be made)

The survey helps to understand where the employee needs help, what additional information to provide in order to facilitate and speed up the onboarding process. In addition, the recruiting manager conducts onboarding interviews on the first weeks on the job. At this point, the new employee shares his/her experience, wishes, talks about positive or negative aspects of work. Sometimes, these conversations reveal problems that the employee faced but did not know who to turn to for help. As a result, the HR department receives accurate information about the state of new employees, tracks the causes of their discomfort, if any, draws the supervisor’s attention to situations where the employee needs more help or information.

A couple of weeks before the end of the probation period, a meeting is arranged where both the representative of the HR department and the employee’s immediate supervisor are present. It is aimed to discuss the probation results, including issues of improving the level of interaction between the employee and the supervisor, if not all the tasks were accomplished at the level expected by the company.

Thus, our main strategy is to ensure comfort while onboarding. One of the company’s key values is customer focus, and our employees very quickly understand that this principle is at the heart of all processes, including internal ones. Therefore, so much attention is paid to organisational issues and stress reduction during onboarding.